Hawkins ready for 2025 volleyball season

Published 1:55 pm Sunday, August 10, 2025

After taking a step back in 2023 with a 12-17 mark following 32 wins and advancing to the regional tournament in 2022, the Hawkins Lady Hawks finished 2024 with a winning record.

The Lady Hawks, who won 36 games in 2021, still advanced to the playoffs in 2023 and 2023 and will look to do the same again in 2025.

Senior defensive specialist Addyson Turrentine and senior libero Jentri Evans were at a fall sports media day at the CHRISTUS Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Institute on July 31 to talk about the upcoming season.

“I expect us to do well,” Turrentine said. “I expect us to advance to the playoffs, and I hope we do well in the playoffs. I just expect a good year. We need good teamwork and good communication, being able to work together and fix everyone’s mistakes and being a good team.

“I think it’s going to be a fun year,” Evans said. “We’re a great team. We are going to connect well together. I expect us to go pretty far in the playoffs. Like Addyson said, we have to have great communication. We’ve got to stay up and can’t get down once we make a mistake because mistakes happen.”

Hawkins competes in District 18-2A with Linden-Kildare, Ore City, Union Grove, Big Sandy and Paul Pewitt.

Hawkins will host Harmony in the season opener on Tuesday.

The Nebraska volleyball team opened the 2025 campaign with its annual Red-White Scrimmage in front of a crowd of 8,414 in John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon. 

The Red team defeated the White team 3-1, though the Huskers mixed their teams and lineups around for each set. 

Here’s the full rundown from Nate Pohlen in Husker Communications:

Rebekah Allick led all players with 16 kills on .433 hitting with five blocks. It was a strong day for the middle blockers overall, as freshman Kenna Cogill posted 10 kills and five blocks and hit .421, and Andi Jackson had nine kills and hit .412. Freshman Manaia Ogbechie led all players with eight blocks in the match. 

Harper Murray tallied 15 kills and nine digs, while Virginia Adriano posted 11 kills with a match-high three aces. Teraya Sigler had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs with a pair of aces, and Skyler Pierce contributed nine kills. 

Bergen Reilly had 41 assists and 15 digs, while Campbell Flynn had 34 assists and 11 digs. Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch had 17 and 16 digs, respectively.  

Taylor Landfair finished with seven kills, five blocks and five digs, and Allie Sczech posted six kills, five digs and three blocks. Ryan Hunter recorded five kills and four blocks. Keri Leimbach and Maisie Boesiger had six and three digs, respectively. 

Red rallied from down 22-19 to win the first set 25-23 with a 6-1 run. Sigler served an ace, and Allick had a kill, while Ogbechie and Landfair had a key block for Red’s first lead of the set at 24-23. 

In the second set, Red put together a late comeback again. Trailing 21-16, Cogill had two kills before Sigler added one to cut the White lead to 21-19. Another Cogill and two White errors tied the score 22-22. Ogbechie and Sczech put White in front 23-22 with a block, but Allick terminated to tie the score again and she connected for the winning kill, 25-23. 

Set three was a back-and-forth battle with the teams tied at 20-20. Adriano posted a kill for Red, and Allick and Murray combined for a block to make it 22-20. Jackson answered with a kill for White, and the score was tied 22-22 before a White hitting error, an Allick kill, and another White hitting error that gave Red the 25-22 win. 

White got on the board in set four with a 25-17 win. Sigler and Allick each had four kills in the set. 

The Huskers continue their preseason with the inaugural Alumni Match next Saturday at 6 p.m. The Alumni squad will feature former Huskers Jordan Larson, Kelly Hunter, Lauren Stivrins, Kenzie Maloney, Annika Albrecht, Gina Mancuso, Callie Schwarzenbach, Lindsay Krause, Leyla Blackwell and Ally Batenhorst.  

A top young athlete in China has been admitted to the prestigious Peking University, earning her admiration for her ability to balance academic studies and sport.

Liu Xiajun, a 20-year-old sprint athlete from China’s national team, has been dubbed “track and field sweet sister” for her good looks.

She has spent most of her time training since she achieved a record result in the 100m in her hometown of Ziyang, southwestern Sichuan province in 2018, reported the mainland news outlet The Cover.

As a result of her time spent on sport, like other athletes, Liu’s academic scores lag far behind those of elite students.

Last year, Liu was offered a place at Fudan University in Shanghai, also a top school in China. But she declined without explaining why.

Following discussions with her family, Liu decided to study for another year to prepare for this year’s national college entrance exam, also known as gaokao in China.

Her goal is to be admitted to Peking University, which is ranked higher than Fudan University, as a student with special sporting talent.

To achieve this, Liu had to score at least 460 out of 750 in the exam.

ROCK SPRINGS — A familiar face is back on the Rock Springs High School volleyball sideline. Casey Rood, a former multi-sport standout and collegiate volleyball player, has been named head coach of the Lady Tigers, taking over the program following the retirement of coach Wendy Bider.

Rood, who previously served as an assistant coach for the Lady Tigers during a three-year stretch that included a conference title and three straight state tournament appearances, most recently worked at Green River High School. There, she helped guide the Wolves to a second-place conference finish and a state tournament berth.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity and working with these athletes,” Rood said. “I’m very passionate about volleyball, and it being a tool to help these young women gain invaluable life skills and lessons. I hope we can build a program and culture that carries its strength and values from season to season.”

Advertisement – Story continues below…

Rock Springs High School
sports coverage is brought to you by these amazing sponsors:

Rood said her time coaching in both Rock Springs and Green River has been invaluable.

“I’m incredibly grateful to have been a part of both Rock Springs and Green River’s volleyball programs,” she said. “I’ve gotten to work alongside some incredible coaches like Jessica Demaret, Shawn Pyer, Jordan Christensen, and Jenna and Abby, who I now have as assistants. Each of these women have taught me so much about the game of volleyball, how to coach, and how to strengthen a program. I cherish every season I’ve gotten to be a part of in Sweetwater County.”

Bider’s tenure as head coach, which spanned nearly three decades of coaching in Sweetwater County, left a lasting mark on the program. While Rood never coached alongside her, she said Bider created “space for her athletes to be passionate,” adding, “I think that speaks volumes. I hope this coaching staff we’ve got now can continue to foster an atmosphere of excitement for these girls.”

Rood’s coaching philosophy centers on “process over outcome” and focusing on what can be controlled. “Wins and losses are an outcome, so I tend not to focus on that,” she said. “I want my team to be disciplined and be able to walk off the court proud of the effort they gave, no matter the outcome.”

That approach translates directly into her practice structure.

“A drill or skill we struggle with? Well, get comfortable because we are going to finish it,” she said. “Volleyball is a unique sport in that you can’t just ‘run out the clock,’ so we’ve got to be mentally tough enough to control the game and physically disciplined enough to trust our training.”

Leadership, accountability, and resilience are key pillars in her program.

“I think the small details over time become the big ones, so I want my athletes to also focus on the small things,” Rood said. “We are attentive and present during meetings, practices, and games. I want a high level of communication and understanding of the game, and that comes from being educated myself and then educating my players.”

The Lady Tigers finished last season with a postseason push that saw them take a set off top-seeded Evanston before falling 3-1 and then battling Jackson in a tight third set before being eliminated in straight sets. Rood sees potential to build on that competitive fight.

“It’s still early, but from what I’ve seen over the summer we’ve got a lot of potential,” she said. “They seem hungry and ready to work hard. We are really going to work hard on mental toughness and grit, being able to shift momentum when things aren’t in our favor.”

Short- and long-term, Rood’s goals remain consistent: building confident, skilled athletes from the freshman level through varsity. “I hope we can get to a point long term where each incoming class contributes to that culture, and we are strong year after year,” she said.

Above all, Rood hopes her players leave the program with life skills they can carry well beyond the court.

“I hope my girls learn the value of hard work, dedication, discipline, teamwork, and communication,” she said. “At the end of the day volleyball is just a game, but it’s a game that can teach us so much about ourselves. I want them to be proud of the effort they gave to their team. I hope they come away from the program knowing they were cared about as a student, athlete, and a person.”